YANGON - Myanmar’s plans to grow the country’s desperately needed but polluting coal-fired power plants could kill more than a quarter of a million people in the coming decades, environmentalists said Thursday. The country’s air is among the dirtiest in the world and pollution is only expected to worsen as the economy opens up after decades of isolation under the former junta.

A new study by Harvard University and Greenpeace warned that the government’s plans to expand its current network of two coal-fired plants to 10 could have a major human toll.

Six of its cities already have higher counts of dangerous microscopic particles known as PM10 than China’s famously smog-filled capital Beijing, according to 2016 data from the World Health Organization.

“These plans do not take into account the human health costs when making choices about the country’s energy future,” Lauri Millyvirta, from Greenpeace, said.

The extra pollution would likely cause more than 7,000 premature deaths a year, totalling 280,000 over the 40-year operating life of the eight new planned plants and the two operating ones, it predicted.

Half would be in Myanmar and the rest in neighbouring countries, mainly Thailand and China but also other parts of Southeast Asia, the study found.

The pollution would likely increase the risk of heart attacks, breathing problems and lung infections.

Myanmar has made coal-fired plants a cornerstone of a government plan to provide electricity to its entire population of more than 50 million people by 2030.

Less than a third of people have regular access to electricity through the country’s dilapidated power grid, which frequently breaks down, and a lack of power is a major issue for attracting foreign investors.

While the country has abundant reserves of gas off its shores in the Andaman Sea, the vast majority is exported, mainly to Thailand and China.

Plans to build the $3.6 billion Myitsone hydroelectric dam on the mouth of Myanmar’s Irrawaddy river, which would sell some 90 percent of its power to China, have also faced strong public opposition.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Click here to view the original article.
[BC ELECTION 2017!! Crony corporatocracy. Just call it what it is: bribery. "We've got a system that opens us up to influence peddling that puts a cash price on decisions that need to be made by the provincial government." *RON*] Alyse Kotyk, rabble.ca, 15 March 2017

Kinder Morgan's controversial Trans Mountain pipeline is pitting First Nations and climate science against industry and the federal and B.C. governments. rabble's Alyse Kotyk is investigating how TMX will impact British Columbians in the lead-up to the May election. Read her preceding pieces here and here. The B.C. Liberals are under scrutiny for accepting significant donations from lobbyists, including those connected to the controversial Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, sparking an RCMP investigation.

Two weeks ago, Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli promised to drop the price of Daraprim, a parasite-fighting drug, after raising it from $13.50 a tablet to $750 a tablet. But so far the price tag hasn't budged.

Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager who acquired Turing in August, first drew criticism after a USA Today article reported the 5,000 percent price hike. He then told ABC News in September that the company would "lower the price of Daraprim to a point that is more affordable and is able to allow the company to make a profit, but a very small profit."

Business Insider writes:
That hasn't happened yet. A 30-day, 30-pill supply of Daraprim would cost me $27,006 at my local pharmacy.
That boils down to about $900 a pill, which includes the wholesale cost, along with spec…

In December 2016 the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution reaffirming that Israel's Jewish settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) are illegal and calling on Israel to stop settlement activities in the OPT. Resolution 2334 says the settlements have "no legal validity," calls them "a flagrant violation under international law," and demands Israel "immediately and completely cease all settlement activities."